Monday, February 18, 2013

Special Thanks: Michael Brown (the non-criminal one)

In my quest to build my most recent book, Test-Driven Database Development: Unlocking Agility, there were many people who helped me.  One of those people is a recently acquired friend and colleague Michael Brown.

There are two Michael Browns with the same name and one of them is a criminal.  The other is not. I mean the one who is a computer programmer, not a criminal.  There are other distinguishing characteristics but none that make me laugh as hard when I remember them.

As much as it was useful to know which parts of the initial versions should never see the light of day, it was also extremely helpful to know which parts of what I was writing actually were of value.  Mike, your positive and open-minded attitude helped me with exactly that.

Of course, you gave me some constructive criticism as well - just like others gave me positive feedback.  However, I could tell what was really clicking by how excited you seemed to get over certain ideas.  I can think of at least one thing that was completely unclear and that I may very well have left out altogether if not for your response to it: the whole information-behavior-knowledge trinity.  There are countless many other examples, that don't immediately come to mind.

So, thank you, Mike.